Article

Playing podcasts sequentially

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Q: I have created a playlist in order to listen to a selection of podcasts but unfortunately only one podcast plays and then I have to manually select the next one to play. I have checked some iLounge archives regarding this problem and the suggested solution of ensuring tracks are “checked” doesn’t seem to apply in my case as all are already checked. Is there any difference because they are podcasts?

- Anonymous

A: The likely cause of this problem is that you have your iPod set to enable “Shuffle” mode, and your podcasts are marked as “Skip when Shuffling” (which is the default setting for new podcasts).

When shuffling playback, either from the main “Shuffle Songs” menu option, or from within a playlist, those tracks marked as “Skip when Shuffling” will not be played. If all of the tracks in an entire playlist are marked to be skipped, then only the first selected track is played, and the playlist will then end.

The solution is to either disable “Shuffle” on the iPod (under Settings, Shuffle) when playing podcasts, or to mark the podcasts themselves to not be skipped when shuffling. This latter option can be found by selecting a track in iTunes, and choosing File, Get Info. The track properties should appear, and on the “Options” tab, simply UNcheck the box marked “Skip when Shuffling” and save the track.

This can also be applied to multiple tracks at once by selecting several tracks before choosing the Get Info option.

Unfortunately, these changes will only apply to existing podcast episodes. New episodes that are downloaded will still have the “Skip when Shuffling” setting enabled by default.